k_a_webb: (The World Walkers)
[personal profile] k_a_webb

Part 1

Part 10, 12th continuation

Landing Page

Lucille couldn’t help wishing there was some way to speed everything up. She was beginning to feel tired, which could easily have been caused by where she was, but it had been late when Durai had arrived and, as she didn’t know how long she’d been in the crystal, it might be the next day. The thing was she knew she couldn’t be tired, not when she had to focus on what came next. It was easy when the battle was raging to talk with Jarek. Being able to take her mind off that really did help. Afterwards was the difficult part. Together they’d tried to work out how they could make the next attempt go even better for them than it had that time, because they had managed to save the life of one guard. Saving one wasn’t enough for either of them, even though there was only so much they could do to change things.

“What are you thinking?”

“Is what we’re doing ever going to be enough?” Sighing, she turned to look at him. “Are we going to be able to save all of the guards who lost their lives?”

“Possibly.” Jarek shrugged, his eyes still locked on the battle that was raging. “I want us to. It’s just hard to know how much we can change without going too far the other way, because we could make a decision that affects the guards adversely. Moving the charms around worked. Putting new ones in did as well.” That was something Lucille had done, when she worked out how one group of guards lost someone. “No matter how long I spend watching this I can’t work out what our next step should be. Maybe we shouldn’t make one. Maybe this is the best we can do and we should accept that.”

“Do you really think it is?”

He shook his head. “No, I don’t, but not being able to work out what we should do makes it much harder. I think I want to leave for a little while and then come back to this with a fresh mind, as my thoughts are a mess and I need to sort them out. Will you be okay if I do that?”

Even though Lucille wasn’t certain she would she nodded. “I’ll be fine, Jarek.” Actually watching the battle wasn’t something she was looking forward to, but it could make working out their next move easier. “You go and do what you need to.”

“Thank you.” He reached out with his paw and squeezed her hand. “I won’t be too long. I know how difficult it can be to watch this battle.”

She watched as he left the room, before making a decision about what she needed to do. If she was going to decide what their next step should be she had to get closer to what was happening. Her fear that she was going to get hurt had mostly faded, because she wasn’t really there, and it wasn’t something she could have done with Jarek there, as he could get hurt. Lucille nibbled her lip as she walked around, watching people that she cared about fighting against the counterfeiters and wishing she could do more to help them. Durai had taught his guards well. They were fighting well and protecting those who hadn’t prepared for the possibility of there being Fasachis on the ship. That made her smile.

As she passed Durai she felt the urge to talk to him. If only he’d been there. Having him to work with would have been a great help – and much less distracting, because there were so many questions she wanted to ask Jarek about the lives he’d led before. The longer she spent with him the more she thought about writing biographies for some of the people she met… because that was something she was going to have time for. Laughing Lucille shook her head. She already wanted to write the history of the Web, the history of all of the other Webs that existed, and possibly the history of Kalinia. There wasn’t enough time for her to work on biographies as well, no matter how interesting they might be.

Slowly she made her way over to the other side of the room. The counterfeiters. She didn’t feel comfortable there, but she knew it was the right thing to do, because she’d realised they could be focusing too much on the guards and not enough on the people they were fighting. Each one of them looked as though they were fighting because it was what they wanted to do, including the possible tiger, but she’d come to understand that not everything was at it seemed when it came to the other side and she couldn’t help wondering how many of them were there out of choice. Was it half of them? Was it three quarters?

Lucille couldn’t help wondering about the raven from Sheepshank. Had she been a part of the counterfeit ring by choice? Was that something they should take into consideration? Sighing, Lucille brushed a hand through her hair. Feeling sorry for the people who’d been forced into being a part of the ring when that was the last thing they wanted was one thing. Actually wondering if there was something she could do to help them was more than she should be doing, because she should be focusing on the people that were hurt by the counterfeits… and when she thought that she knew the people she was looking at might well be the same. They hadn’t lost their wings or anything like that, but they had lost their freedom.

“You okay?”

Jarek’s voice made her jump and she turned to look at him. “You weren’t gone for very long.”

He shrugged. “I was worried about you and it looks like I was right to be. What are you doing over there?” Their eyes met and she could see the worry within them. “Anything could happen to you.”

Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.

July 2017

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